From Yesterday
by One of Yesterday
Summary: In all honesty, Sakura had no idea what would happen when Sasuke gave her the jutsu. "It doesn't matter what you want, this isn't for you. This is for the world we left behind." Time Travel fic. Gen-ish. Rating may go up.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, own nothing. But that's okay...I'm...trying to convince myself it's okay T-T...**

**Warnings: Cursing. Angst.**

This is my first fanfic ever, so bear with me! Hopefully it doesn't suck as much as I think it does.

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**Chapter One: Ready?  
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Haruno Sakura woke up two feet shorter and in need of a weight on her chest. She only had enough time to flash a quick grin directed to herself before rushing into the bathroom and throwing up.

"Honey? Are you okay?"

Hearing the voice, Sakura couldn't help but grin more. It looked like everything was in place. Her mother was alive, her house was still standing, and she still had a bed to sleep in. It was a lucky thing that she didn't end up among the Great Ninja War like Sasuke thought they would. _Oh god_, she thought suddenly, _Sasuke…_

After a glance and sneer at her attire, Sakura dashed to her closet and pulled out a white blouse that looked like the top part of her former dress with red lace and a short red fighting skirt that had her white, circular signature on the front. _Maybe I'll leave my hair long this time._

"Bye, mom! I'm going to the academy, see you tonight." It was only halfway there that Sakura realized she had forgotten her hitai-ite at home. Home, it sounded so unfamiliar to her.

"What's the rush, Billboard Brow?"

She couldn't help but abruptly stop at the voice. That voice had haunted her dreams for almost two years now, ever since its owner took up an infiltration mission and ended up missing in action for months until her corpse was finally found floating in Nanako River. It took Sakura five seconds and two gulps of saliva to finally get her voice back. "Hey, Ino-pig. Heading for the academy, you? Let me guess, going shopping…again?"

It hurt Sakura to talk to an old, long lost friend as if she was her enemy, but that was who Ino was at the moment. Why had they even become rivals in the first place? Oh yeah, Sasuke. The ironic thing was that she gave him up for Lee, someone she considered disgusting at one point. Sakura instinctively felt at her ring finger. Yup, there was no stunning diamond ring there. She tried to not be hurt by that fact.

Ino scoffed, deciding to finally step out of the shade of her family's flower shop. "I'm surprised the let you in. Did they start getting desperate for extra ninjas?"

"It would hardly be wise for that. After all, most of us that actually deserve to pass won't even live to the age of thirty. The weak would just slow the village down," Sakura said darkly, immediately regretting it when Ino looked at her with large, horrified eyes. She hadn't meant to say that, it just slipped out. Hinata, Tenten, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba all died at around age twenty seven. The rest had perished in the attack from Amegakure a year later. Ino had died four years before that. Even Naruto only lasted until after he turned thirty one, leaving Sasuke and her to cope.

That's why they were here, back in time and grudgingly small; to fix everything.

"Sakura…?"

Sakura loved how Ino pronounced her name, emphasizing the "u" and making it sound frustratingly cute. Nobody else could say it like her, it was always "Sakura-chan" from Naruto, "Sakura-san" from Lee, and "Sakura-sama" from all her lower medics, patients, and admirers. Growing up and being respected wasn't as great as it seemed like when she was little-er, now. Turning to her former and hopefully soon to be reinstated best friend, Sakura grinned the sweet beam she was known for in the past…or, in this case, future.

"Sorry, I was trying to joke around and intimidate you, but I guess you're too stupid to even realize that, aren't you?"

Immediately, Ino's face turned red with embarrassment and rage. "YEAH RIGHT! And to think I was worried about you for a second there."

The grin turned coy. "Aw, it's so nice to know you care."

Ino sped up of few steps to catch up to Sakura's semi-quick pace and made sure to keep at least a foot ahead of her. Sakura remember this competition they had, they always tried to get ahead of the other, even though everybody knew Ino was by far the strongest kunoichi of the year and Sakura was only smart, nothing else. It would be only a few months later that Sakura would be looking down at Ino's panting body and encouraging her to continue her medic training.

"Now who's rushing, Ino?" Taunting Ino was fun, she realized. Much more fun than it was when she was younger. Maybe it was because this time Sakura didn't feel the frustration of an actual competition. She did, after all, have a twenty year advantage.

Instead of entertaining the blonde by starting a race, Sakura instead opted to keep behind Ino. It was ninja instinct to stay behind a group, for they never knew if someone could be a spy or traitor. Ino would learn that soon enough once she became chunin and started C and B rank missions that forced her outside of Konoha's boundaries and into the true shinobi world.

Ino seemed to smirk at Sakura, maybe because she thought that the pinkette had finally stood down and gave up a challenge, and continued on. The rest of the walk continued in mutual silence.

* * *

Sasuke, once again, went over the design of his recent work. In the future, the last Uchiha would be an excellent, though far from trusted, blacksmith, head of the ANBU, and a valued member of the Interrogation Department, but right now he was still in the academy with supposedly mediocre skill and little knowledge of the real, outside world.

He had been here since the crack of dawn after training for an hour or two to sketch his ideas for the device in private. If one of his fangirls walked in and saw him drawing with a thoughtful face on, who knows what she would assume and spread all over the village. Sasuke could see it now: Extra extra, heartthrob Uchiha has a soft, solicitous artsy side. The thought made him want to barf. Yeah, his greatest masterpiece: a two sided scythe that configured his black flamed Ameterasu into a demonic form. Not exactly the kind of art people would like to see, though it would support the Grim Reaper look that little kids thought of when they heard his name.

Instead of the navy blue shirt he usually wore, Sasuke was wearing a plain black T-shirt with a considerably lower collar and –gasp- _no _overdramatic Uchiha fan symbol on the back. He instead wore his clan's pride on a customized necklace around his neck, the handle of the fan connected to a slight chain that made the image hang upside down. Around his wrists were bandages that cover his still healing weapon summoning seals that he had recreated this morning. It was a lot more complicated and hard to make without Kabuto's, but he had managed, though his wrists had sustained some minor damage in the process. Hidden in a pouch on his hip was a scroll that contained his Kusanagi, the only weapon he managed to remake so far, which was pretty impressive in such a short time. His white shorts remained the same.

When Sasuke looked in the mirror after he changed, he had only one thought. _Man, I look even more emo_. But he definitely looked less prideful and less likely to be recognized as the esteemed sole survivor of the Uchiha massacre, which was the whole point of the new outfit.

Sasuke was not wearing his hitai-___ite. He took one look at it in the morning and was reminded of all the things that he did and all the horrible costs of his actions. It made him sick. Even when he returned to Konohagakure in_ his original timeline, he couldn't make himself to put the withered blue cloth and ruined slate of metal on his forehead. No, Sasuke did not think he would ever wear a sign of loyalty to anything other than his clan ever again.

His bangs fell limply onto his forehead, making him look even more solitary. Sasuke didn't remember his hair being this spiky and blue.

The door to the right of him opened and surprisingly soft footsteps approached him. Sasuke's blood almost froze when he saw Naruto Uzumaki sitting only one seat away from him. It seemed like only yesterday that he was holding his Hokage's limp body to his chest, crying with Sakura in the rain. His fists clenched a little at the thought. The war with Ame had been far more brutal than what he had expected after Hanzou's student took control in the absence of the villager's god, Pein. Konoha had only gotten a year to rebuild the destroyed village and dreams before another attack came. Those attacks proceeded at unpredictable times until finally, after almost ten stressful years, an all-out war had started. It was horrifying, to say the least.

Sasuke hadn't known he opened his mouth. The word flowed off his tongue even after a year of not using the reserved insult. "Dobe." He put his notebook away.

Naruto snapped around and glared at Sasuke, not knowing there wasn't any malice behind the name. "Teme!"

Bliss. That was what Sasuke was feeling. Even after waking up in his own apartment and walking into the academy building that had once upon a time been nothing but a pile of ash and scraps he couldn't connect that he was actually in the past. But that one word, the name he hadn't been called for far too long in his opinion, brought the gravity of the situation crashing down on Sasuke. Here he was, young and in the past with knowledge and skills beyond his years. He could stop _everythin_g. His friends wouldn't feel the pain his betrayal had caused them and they wouldn't die the horrible deaths they were destined to experience. Sasuke could defy fate and time; he could already bend space before with his jutsus; and, with Sakura's help, they could make their cursed lives everything they imagined it would be when they were little and stupid. The pressure of all this was great, crushing him to the ground, but it felt amazingly energizing; giving Sasuke the hope he had lost when Naruto died.

Sasuke was ready; there was no other way to describe what he felt at that moment.

* * *

"Sasuke, may I sit next to you?"

"Why are you even trying, Billboard Brow? Everybody knows he wants to sit next to me!"

"No. I was here first; I should sit next to Sasuke-kun!"

"Then why did you sit in that seat? Your chance is gone, loser."

"I was here before all of you, so move it!"

Sakura grinned at the slowly but surely increasing number of angered females in the classroom. All she had to do was mutter on question and the rest just snowballed out of control.

_Or right into __**my **__control, _she though wickedly. Nobody had even noticed that she had dropped the "kun" suffix at the end of her "crush's" name.

On the way to the academy with Ino, Sakura had remembered _exactly_ what happened today. How could she not? It was one of the most saddening moment of her life, right next to Sasuke leaving Konoha, Lee being reported missing in action, and Naruto dying. Today was the day that Sasuke would lose his first kiss.

Well, it wasn't technically his first kiss, but either way he was still going to lose it to the same person. If she was the same fangirl she once was, Sakura would've done anything to stop it from happening. She had married Lee, however, so this seemed more like an amusing event she wanted to replay over again to enjoy at the cost of other's pride. Oh, she was evil.

Sakura could visibly see Naruto getting more and more mad at the fact his rival was getting all the attention. She thought she smelled smoke coming out of the blonde's ears. "Move, Naruto."

That last sentence did it. Naruto did move, though not in the way her other classmates expected. With two sure feet and some attention grabbing _clicks_, Naruto kneeled on the desk in front of Sasuke. His eyes were squinty and his mouth was set in a firm frown.

Sakura grinned in anticipation and Sasuke's eyes widened at realizing what was going to happen, scooting back a little to get up from his seat.

"Aw, man!" Too late.

Naruto's eyes widened and he fell forward. The world seemed to freeze.

As if in slow motion, Naruto and Sasuke's lips collided, their eyes widening to an impossible diameter. Sasuke, unfortunately, was in the middle of getting up, so Naruto brace both his unsteady hands on the raven's shoulders and found his mouth gliding from his lips to his neck. Naruto screamed and clenched his teeth in surprise, effectively biting down on Sasuke's pale neck, exactly where Orochimaru had put his cursed seal. It seemed like that, even back in time, that joint between Sasuke's left shoulder and neck was very sensitive, for he gasped and his eyes glazed over for a second. Sasuke vaguely thought that it was a _very_ bad idea to get a lower collar, everybody in the class could see what was happening. Somewhere in the background, the two disoriented boys could here Sakura hiss a "SCORE AND BONUS!"

Sasuke fell back into his seat and Naruto unlatched from him. He animatedly started spitting, saying things like "Ew!" and "I've been poisoned!" while the other, quieter boy gazed at him dazedly, his hand clutching where Naruto had bit him.

Suddenly, Naruto crouched straighter…if that's even possible. "Hm? Trouble." Bingo.

Slowly creaking his neck to the right, Naruto found himself looking a lion in the mouth, or in this case, at a mob of pissed fangirls. "Narutoooo…"

"Gah! Um, it…was an accident?" The alibi didn't help the beating.

Sakura happily sat down next to Sasuke, who had regained his composure, and enjoyed the show with a magnificent view.

"You are an evil witch-doctor," he said darkly.

Her grin never faded. "Oh, I know," Sakura didn't look away from Naruto's bruising body, "But I got my seat in the end, didn't I?"

Didn't she?

* * *

"Alright class, settle down," said an amused Iruka, pointedly trying to ignore Naruto's damaged body that was slouching halfway off his desk. "Now, you are all counted as genin today…"

"…And now I wish you all luck. Here are your teams."

"Huh? What did he say?" Sakura asked Sasuke. She remembered that she would hang onto Iruka's every word in the past, thinking that if she ever got in trouble all she had to do was depend on theories and already made strategies that any rookie could see through. Now she barely listened to a word he said.

"Basically that we shouldn't get cocky 'cause we're still snot-nosed brats and that ninja life sucks badly."

Sakura scoffed. "Ain't that the truth."

"Hey, Ino," said blonde looked curiously at Sakura, "Let's make a bet. If I get on a team with Sasuke, you have to give me all the books your family has on jutsus that I want that isn't a clan secret. If Sasuke doesn't get on my team, I'll give up on him and you'll have one less competitor for his affections."

Ino grinned, the chances of Sakura the Forehead getting her precious Sasuke was a million to one. If anything, Ino was sure that she would be in a team with him. "You're on."

Little did she know that this was actually a win-win deal for Sakura. The Yamanaka clan was skilled at reading minds and their books were probably full of different techniques they had gathered over the years. The only thing that would be grander than their jutsu knowledge would probably the Uchiha clan's library, and there was no way in hell that Sasuke would let her touch that. It was exactly what she needed this time around. And on the impossible note that she lost, Sakura could finally stop pretending to be in love with Sasuke. All she had to do was wait.

"Team 7 will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno-"

"YEAH!"

"-And Sasuke Uchiha."

"I'm doomed…"

Sakura glanced up at Ino, grinning once again. "Better ask your dad about that library of his, Ino-pig." In her mind, Sakura knew this would be the first step to regain her friendship with the blonde.

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After all the teams were given, Sasuke and Sakura decided to go for a walk around the village to discuss their plans.

"What happened today, anyway?"

Sasuke looked at her bemusedly. "What?"

"Back in the old timeline, I remember you coming up to me and," she blushed at the words she was going to say, "Started to flirt with me, then ran away. After that, you came back looking for Naruto and kind of knocked me to my senses on how I treated him. And I say kind of as in I stopped beating him up every time I saw him, nothing else. Then Naruto came and looked like he was about to fight me when I started being nice to him but ran off after a few seconds."

Sasuke scoffed. "Now I remember. Naruto henged into me after he beat me and tied me up. He was probably the one who flirted with you. I escaped afterwards and started searching for him, found him in the bathroom. That's probably why he ran off, because he had to go again."

Sakura stared at Sasuke for a second, then burst out laughing. "What?" Sasuke's eyebrow twitched in exasperation.

"Naruto…the current knuckleheaded Naruto Uzumaki…beat you up…and tied you up? What, did he have to resort to bondage to get your pretty ass?" she said between breaths. After Sasuke came back to Konoha and was off probation, Sakura had developed a teasing side where she insisted that he and Naruto had a relationship going on since both of them were still single at the age of twenty five, have never dated, and spend all their time together. They, of course, always denied this claim. That didn't stop all of Konoha to find out though, unfortunately. Ever since then, Sakura has continued her teasing as proof that gossip triumphs over all, even the words of the Hokage. "Okay, okay I'm good. Seriously, though, he managed to beat you? This Naruto, the weakest of the weak?"

Sasuke sighed. "And also the most spontaneous. I didn't know he could use Kage Bunshin at the time. It was pretty surprising. He launched a combo of Kawarimi and that to trick me. Naruto may be an idiot, but he's the master of simple strategies that most people overlook."

Flashes came into Sakura's head of the first time she saw Kage Bunshin during their bell test with Kakashi and the amazement she felt at the jutsu. Then she remembered the time when Naruto and Sasuke formed the Shadow Shuriken Kawarimi strategy to save Kakashi from Zabuza by just looking at each other. Sasuke was right, Naruto was a genius when he wanted to be one, which meant when people's lives were at stake and all hope was lost. Exactly when they didn't expect a solution to a problem, Naruto goes and fixes it, he's proved it a million times and then some.

"That doesn't explain why he wanted to fight me, though."

"You were being nice to him, right? He probably thought it was actually me in disguise."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense now, I wonder why I didn't figure this out before?"

"We kind of had other things to worry about."

Sakura laughed at that. "Yeah, like boring mind-numbing D-rank missions-oh crap."

Sasuke stopped. "What?" he asked.

The sole kunoichi paled and turned an angry red at the same time, again, how is that possible? "I just realized we have to do other people's chores again."

"Damn."

"Yeah."

* * *

Naruto sat on a tall water tower alone, spying on Team 10, who were beneath him. He sighed. It was just another boring, lonely day. He couldn't even find his so-called teammates after Iruka dismissed them. He really hoped things would get better from this point on. He had completed step one of his dream, after all. Naruto Uzumaki was finally a ninja.

"Hey, Naruto!"

The voice almost made him fall off where he was lying. Jumping up, Naruto frenzied around, wondering if we was caught stalking. "NARUTO!"

He finally looked down to see Sakura in her pretty, new outfit waving at him, Sasuke on tow behind her. But that didn't bother him. Sakura, his long time crush, has smiling at _him_. This had to be some kind of dream. He pinched his arm. "Ow!"

"What are you doing, you idiot? Come on, it's almost time to meet our sensei. Sasuke even stopped to buy you a lunch!"

Naruto looked closer and, to his utmost joy, saw Sasuke standing straight and proud with a white and red bowel in his hands that could only belong to one place: Ichiraku Ramen.

"RAMEN!"

Naruto climbed down and ran to his team, all of them smiling with joy as they made their way to the not-so-unpredictable future.

Well, except for Sasuke, he's too cool to smile.

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Well, what do you think? Please Review! I actually have no clue as to how this story is going to continue and end, so bear with me!

**-OY  
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	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for creepy stalker girl that won't leave me alone. Truth be told, I'd rather own nothing.**

**Warnings: Cursing. Slightly perverted nature.  
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Aaahhh, this chapter is lame!

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**Chapter Two: Two Steps Back**

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"It's getting darker, what did you do?"

Sasuke looked appalled by Sakura's accusation. "Why is it that when anything goes wrong, you blame me?"

Sakura just glared at him, a look that shouldn't belong on her pretty cherubic face.

"…Okay, so I practiced a few fire jutsus this morning, but I didn't think that it would change the air pressure so much that it would bring a storm."

"You pointed fire towards the sky?"

Sasuke scoffed at glared pointedly at her. "Would you have rather had the forest that made our village Konoha burn to the ground?"

Sakura sighed. "Point taken. What did you find out while training?"

At this Sasuke sighed in frustration and slight self-loathing. "Your predictions were correct. I can do most jutsus, but my chakra control is so messed up it's not even funny. I get exhausted just by doing a few Goukakyuus. My Chidori's also off. I can barely do one, and I won't even get to how horrible my variations are. No Kouken, no senbon, no Nagashi."

"I see, that would mean that my medical abilities and genjutsus would ultimately fail, too," Sakura replied. "I might be able to use my chakra enhanced strength, but it's best if I don't risk it. Without my gloves, that much chakra could easily explode in my arms and tear muscles. I'm surprised your Chidori didn't do the same thing."

Scoffing again, Sasuke tilted his head away, aware that there were people watching, including his classmates and Naruto. The conversation up until then was moderately silent. He brought it down to a barely audible whisper. "I survived willingly letting lightning travel around my body,causing major internal injuries, being paralyzed, and exhaustion; I can handle it just in my arm."

"Don't get cocky."

Sasuke carried on, not responding to the warning. "Chakra control aside, my aim's like it was when I was this age, along with my strength and speed. Anything we physically trained with throughout the years is completely gone, no muscle memory whatsoever. We need to get training right now if we want to even stand a chance against Kakashi. Who knows, if we don't do anything, we might suck as much as last time."

Sakura shuddered at remembering how unbearably weak and foolish she had been back then. She had not even managed to notice a simple supplementary D-rank genjutsu. If there was one thing she was going to do in Kakashi's bell test, it was send that stupid genjutsu right back at him, if not for the irony alone. She was spending too much time with Sasuke, to be thinking of revenge on every little thing that went wrong.

"Let's get training, then. Let's face it, Kakashi-sensei's not going to show up for at least three more hours and Iruka already left for that emergency conference. Let's get going."

Sasuke got up and froze, glaring at what seemed to be nothing but air, before jerking at Naruto's hand and urging him to leave the classroom. Sakura had sensed it too, maybe even before the Uchiha.

* * *

"Interesting," an ironically apathetic voice drawled.

A woman in a red dress with matching eyes gasped and stepped forward. "Could it be that he sensed Sandaime Hokage's jutsu?"

The other jonins in the room were awestruck that a mere genin could notice the Hokage's special spying jutsu. It was to be expected, though. The kid was an Uchiha.

The woman looked back at the tall muscleman she had a crush on. He started talking with his cigarette still in his mouth. "It would seem like it. Did you see the words he mouthed? 'Don't let me catch you again.' The kid's practically screaming that he saw us and we need better security around this place."

Sarutobi stared grimly as the group of three left the classroom. He hadn't heard what Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were discussing about before, and the trio had immediately left once his crystal ball focused on them. Without looking up from the clear lavender sphere, he started talking in his gravelly kind voice.

"Kakashi, are you sure you're up for this team? You certainly chose a unique group."

Hatake Kakashi did not say anything, Sandaime understood. The jonin never could let go of the past.

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke raced up their respective trees once again, Sasuke getting the lead while Naruto fell short at the fourth branch where he sat on to take a short break. Sasuke continued on another twenty to thirty feet before tightening his grip on his kunai and slashing the tree. He did a half flip in the air and landed in a crouched position, his weapon in front of him facing outward as if he was about to get into the fight of his life. Naruto hopped down from his branch and joined Sakura at the bottom of her slightly thinner tree. She was exhausted and didn't look well.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, why are we doing this, anyway?" he asked. It was well into the afternoon. They had been climbing trees without hands for two hours without break and seemed to be getting nowhere.

Sakura managed to strain out a withered smile. She had managed to get to the top almost fifteen minutes ago and dropped right out of the tree, thank god Sasuke had been there to catch her. Even after those minutes she still looked like she was murdered and brought back to life. "We're training our bodies to control chakra, Naruto. And no, it is not pronounced 'catra.' You're going to really need this training when you start fighting actual opponents."

At this Naruto's big blue eyes lit up with excitement. "Alright then! I'm getting to the top."

The sole female giggled at the display. "You're going to have to catch up to Sasuke, first." Naruto looked at the raven. Sasuke had already made it almost halfway up his tree. The blond made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a growl and walked towards his tree again, only to be stopped by Sakura. "Remember," she said tiredly, "You have to be calm and focused for this exercise." Naruto nodded and went back to work.

To say Sakura was ashamed of herself was an understatement. Not only had it taken her multiple failed attempts and precious time to get to the top of her tree, but she didn't even have enough energy to save her pride and walk down. Back in the future (does anyone notice how strange that sounds?), she could walk up trees all day while dodging the weapons Tsunade had thrown at her in rage. Quietly, she stood and went to buy some gloves. The gloves she bought may not help her with focusing chakra like her old ones, but they would protect her hands for when she did have to get rough. Besides, give Sasuke one night and he could make them just like the ones that were bestowed on her by her mistress.

~:O:~

Sasuke was tired, which sickened him to no end. There was one thing that lighted his mood a little, however. Naruto was quickly catching up to him. When he was younger, Sasuke would've been angered and annoyed that Naruto even dared to compete with him, let alone be right behind him in the long run, but this time it was different.

Sasuke swore to himself that this time around, he would help Naruto become the greatest Hokage the village had ever seen.

* * *

"Come on, guys. Our sensei's bound to be at the academy now. It's been almost three hours," Sakura yelled.

Sasuke was the first down his tree with Naruto just a few seconds behind him. Unlike the latter, Sasuke looked worn but pleased, his hair tussled and his new T-shirt slightly wrinkled. Sakura smirked at this.

"Oh? Did Naruto get too rough, Sasuke? I thought he would've been more gentle during-"

"Haruno. Not. The. Time." Sakura giggled but shut up.

Sasuke rarely called her by her last name, only when he was feeling something so strong that he needed her to focus but act normal. Normally, people, even ninja, didn't notice this trick that they secretly created, so it worked to their advantage perfectly.

To their not-so-surprise, Kakashi was not there when Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura entered the room. Heck, _nobody _was there. Naruto looked pissed and excused himself from the group without a reason, not even pausing to listen to their response.

"That was strange. Naruto usually doesn't act that straightforward. I mean, he acts straightforward, but not in that way. You know? Like-"

"_Sakura_," Sasuke stressed, "I felt Kyuubi while Naruto and I were training."

The girl stopped mid-speech. She turned perfunctorily around the room, looking for any genjutsus like the one they experienced earlier today before turning back to her raven haired friend with a horrified gaze.

"You _what?_"

Sakura wished Sasuke was a different person. She wished she wasn't talking to him right now, 'cause then she could pretend that this wasn't happening and laugh it off and walk away before they could say anything else. But she couldn't, because this was _Sasuke_. Sasuke, the twisted but beautiful boy she had always admired and wanted to stand beside, even after the married Lee. Sasuke, who never let go of things and got revenge for even the smallest mistake. Sasuke, who didn't understand weakness and quitting and feared close to nothing. Sasuke, the one who cared about Naruto more than his own life.

And, though it didn't look like it, Sasuke was scared shitless.

Eerily calm, that's what their once homey and carefree classroom felt like. This wasn't supposed to happen, it was never supposed to happen. Did they push Naruto too far too early on learning to control his chakra? Did they make him so exhausted that Kyuubi managed to escape, if only a little bit? Was the seal breaking because they were here and they weren't supposed to be? Did they show too much love for Naruto? Was he not supposed to eat ramen today for lunch?

She realized she was naming problems that weren't even problems and forced herself to stop. Reciting every little thing she did today and guessing which one was correct would not help them now. Once she felt like she was back into her own body, Sakura realized that Sasuke was holding her shoulders and shaking her. "Wha?"

He was practically snarling. "We don't have time for this. Kakashi will be here in a little while and then who knows when we'll finally have time to actually talk about this stuff. We need to focus, for Naruto."

_For Naruto_, she repeated in her head, _that's the only reason you're even here, aren't you, Sasuke?_

Sakura sighed and removed his pale, delicate, yet dangerous hands from her silken blouse. "Alright. For time's sake, we'd be better off just observing and seeing if it happens again. You know how sealing works with your storage scrolls. If there's a pattern that we can recognize and predict, we'll have a better chance of understanding what's wrong and might be able to, if needed, fix the seal. Until then, we'll just have to wait."

Ever since she was little, Sakura had known that even though he was cool and calm, Sasuke was a very impatient person. He couldn't wait for anything, whether it was for her to catch up with him during training or for Konoha to finally guide him to the power he ran off to Orochimaru for. This wait would be no better, she was sure of it.

Sasuke stopped looking at her and moved towards the sliding door of the classroom. "Do you feel it?" he asked. For a second Sakura thought he was talking about Kyuubi and readied herself to fight for her life and Sasuke's. "Kakashi has finally shown himself." She bonked the Uchiha on the head, earning a smug smirk in return.

"You made me scared on purpose, didn't you?"

"Who, me? Never." The smirk didn't leave his eyes, though.

Then the crashing and yelling started.

* * *

Naruto was a knucklehead, but he was in no way stupid. His teammates, Sasuke and Sakura, had something going on between them. Over the years, he thought he had them figured out. Sakura was terribly in love and devoted to Sasuke to the point of ignoring everything else and Sasuke couldn't care less about anyone. But today had turn the tables on him, and he was determined to find just what his comrades were hiding.

But not right now.

"What kind of sensei leaves his own students waiting?" he wondered while he opened the janitor's closet with his hand-dandy lock pick.

In half an hour Naruto had booby trapped the entire main hallway of the academy with various objects. There was a string that activated when the front door opened that triggered a row of shuriken to fall parallel to the wall that any jonin would notice which made them stay by the door where a chalk eraser would fall on their head. They would proceed to walk down the hallway stepping over the weapons which triggered another invisible wire that had gym mats that were aligned on both sides of the walls to drop. Because hopping would be an idiotic move at that point, the jonin would most likely roll out of the way and get caught in a rope. The rope had two giant movable janitor buckets (you know, the really big kind with wheels and is usually yellow and can fit a kid? Could anybody tell me what they're called?). This trap wasn't really meant for anything except slowing them down enough for Naruto to use his Harem no Jutsu and rape-ahem, attack him.

Originally it was only the eraser above the doorway thing, but Naruto likes to impress

* * *

Kakashi came into the classroom blushing and smelling of dirty water. He was met by an innocent looking Naruto, an apathetic Sasuke, and a curious Sakura. The shaking of the three's shoulders didn't support their acts, though.

"Let's see," he started. "My first impression of you guys is…I hate you."

Sakura couldn't take it; she burst out laughing at the morbid announcement while Naruto made a look of disappointment. Sasuke seemed to be interested in anything and everything around the room except his present team, never even glancing at them, though a muttered "idiots" explained his choice of actions.

"Meet me on the roof." Their sensei _poofed_ away in a cloud of smoke.

"He Shunshined, show off," Sasuke muttered, getting up and opening a window.

Naruto turned and looked at the other boy, "What are you doing?"

He shrugged and jumped out, appearing again from above the window, his hair falling from his face because of the gravity he was currently defying. "I'm getting some training in, dobe."

Sakura followed him out with Naruto close behind. "Teme!"

* * *

The sky was still dark.

"Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves?" asked Kakashi.

Naruto was sitting on the top step of the stairs while Sasuke was sitting to his lower left and Sakura his lower right. "What should we say?" he asked curiously. Nobody had ever cared enough to ask about what he was like before; it was a tad bit confusing. But that didn't mean he didn't like it.

Kakashi looked like he was half asleep. "Name, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies. Thing like that."

"Why don't you tell us about yourself first, sensei?" Sakura said.

"Me?" Kakashi said, pointing to himself. "Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi. I like some things and don't like some things. Dreams for the future…hm, I never thought about those. I have lots of hobbies."

Cue mutual animated sweat drop.

"You first."

Naruto couldn't help but play with his hitai-ite nervously, his fingers making a clicking sound when they touched the metal part. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, believe it! I like Ichiraku ramen. I especially like the ramen Iruka-sensei buys for me. I don't like the three minutes you have to wait for instant ramen to cook after you poor hot water into the cup. My hobbies are tasting, testing, and rating different kinds of ramen."

_Does this kid always think about ramen?_ Kakashi thought with a tad bit of disgust.

"And my dream," Naruto continued, unaware of his sensei's thought, "Is to become the greatest Hokage! That way people will stop ignoring me and treating me like I'm somebody, somebody important!"

"Okay, you next," Kakashi said, pointing at Sakura.

She briefly remembered the giggling and blushing mess she was when this happened last time and made sure she sounded dignified to make up for the event.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. I like reading and training. I dislike nuke-nin and people who act superior to others. I also extremely dislike the fact that most people think kunoichi are weak and shouldn't participate in battle other than being medic-nins or genjutsu specialists. I mean, those roles are great, but we can do so much more if people just let us!"

Sasuke knew that Sakura was very frustrated when it came to this topic. After Tsunade died, Sakura tried to continue her super strength taijutsu training, but the shinobi of the village opted to teach her genjutsu instead with Kurenai of Team Eight. After she had almost completely grasped the art, they still wouldn't teach her any too violent jutsus for prejudice reasons. Surprisingly, Sasuke found that scenario even more angering than Danzou forcing Itachi to kill the Uchiha clan. It may be just because he was aware of it more than the latter, but that didn't change his viewpoints. It just showed that all people have a side that believes in something, even if it is wrong.

_And I'm the prime example for that_, Sasuke though, referring to his obsession with revenge.

The worst thing is that Sakura believed that if she managed to just do a little more hand-to-hand training, she would've been able to save Naruto.

"My hobbies are reading and learning medical jutsus, which I'll be doing more and more often from now on because of my recently acquired library," Sakura paused to giggle at her won bet with Ino. "My dream is to protect and save this village from outside and in and to prove that females can be as strong as their male counterparts. I will crush all men to the ground!"

Kakashi found interest that, instead of falling head over heels for the male race like he suspected, Sakura was actually very competitive when it came to men to the point of no return. Judging from the terrified look from Naruto and the slight paling of Sasuke, he concluded that this would be a very interesting team indeed.

"Last one up," he said.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like very few things and hate almost everything. My hobbies, well, you'll probably figure them out as we start going on missions together. My dream," there was a moment of silence as Sasuke contemplated the topic. He didn't want to kill his brother, at least not in cold blood. He still, however, wanted to reap revenge on the council. And settling down and starting a family didn't even seem appealing to the Uchiha back when he was actually twelve. "…My dream is to find a cure for blindness, maybe even travel the world a little. I will also protect everything that is dear to me."

Kakashi was taken back a bit by Sasuke's dream. He had suspected dark and revenge filled ambitions, not for Sasuke to be an idealist doctor trying to discover new lands. He liked the idea of his student wanting to protect others, though. It was a much healthier life style than one of death and emptiness.

"Alright, now that you know each other, I have an announcement to make. We're going to have a survival exercise for just the four of us."

Naruto perked up at this. "What? But we've already done that stuff in the academy."

Chuckling darkly, Kakashi replied to the complaint with a killer gaze. He saw Naruto instinctively stiffen. "Yes, but this one will be different. You see, out of the entire academy students that graduated, only nine will actually become genin."

"WHAAAT!" shouted Naruto with his jaw dropping to the ground. "But we've already passed!"

"That was what you could call a preliminary. It was to see who had the potential of becoming a true ninja. The real test is with me." Sasuke and Sakura glared daggers at their sensei. "Meet me at training ground 3 at seven o'clock in the morning." He made handsigns to disappear again. "Oh, and don't eat any breakfast unless you want to throw up." And he was gone.

As if it was mocking the trio, the sky finally get go of all the water it had been storing up. Sakura turned to glare at Sasuke, ignoring the anxious and shivering Naruto in the middle. "Great, just great."

* * *

It was an all out thunderstorm when Naruto sleepily walked to Training Ground 3 to see that his teammates were already there. "Do you really think that this test is going to happen with the rain and thunder?"

Sakura just grinned. "Of course we will, I bet Kakashi-sensei just loves to torture us like that. I'm not even being sarcastic. On the surefire chance that he does, Sasuke will be very happy."

"Why?"

"That is another thing that you'll figure out later," said a new voice. Sasuke had walked from the other side of the clearing towards them, sneering at Naruto's hideously orange umbrella and rain hat. "Is everything you wear orange?"

"Um, I have a sleeping cap that looks like a brown dog is chewing at my head. So, no."

Sakura walked up to the disgusted Uchiha. "So?"

He sighed and handed her a pair of black leather gloves with an ashamed look. "I could get the basics down, you should be able to focus your chakra more easily. However, it won't give you the same kind of control the others did. You'll probably end up doing far too much damage if you try using them."

"Are you serious? You could make a katana and scythe in a few hours but you couldn't fix my gloves with almost a whole afternoon and night's time?" Sakura asked while scoffing.

"It's different. I've made the katana and scythe before and have had practice. Your gloves are a mystery to me. Just be glad you can at least punch hard."

Sakura sighed and put the gloves on. "I'll guess I'll start practicing, then. Naruto, why don't you try the tree climbing exercise again? And this time, make as many Kage Bunshin as you can and make them climb every tree you can see."

Naruto looked at her confusedly. "Huh? Why?"

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is an information gathering jutsu, idiot. You can use it as just a source of brute force, but that won't work with strong enemies. If you dispel a Kage Bunshin, you can attain the knowledge that they gained while they existed. With your chakra capacity, you should use that strategy whenever possible." It gave Sakura a slight headache to explain everything to Naruto, and she was pretty sure that he wouldn't examine it on a larger scale than what she had said.

"Oh, I get it. So if my clone spent a whole day with you and I wasn't there, once I dispelled it, I would know exactly what we did that day. Wait, why didn't you tell me this earlier when we were climbing at the academy?" Looks like she was wrong. Why couldn't Naruto have acted this smart when he learned it the first time? Maybe it was because he hadn't instilled that his jutsu was only used for brawling into his head.

Sakura started walking away. "Because you need at least a little of that training to actually be able to make the clones evenly. Now get going, Kakashi will probably get here in a few hours and Sasuke already started his training."

Naruto looked around and couldn't see his other teammate anywhere. "Hey, where did he -" he stopped talking when he realized Sakura had left and he was alone. "Don't leave me! I'm scared of storms, believe it!"

* * *

I know, this was boring. I apologize. I actually wanted this to be longer to sum up the Bell Test, but I got lazy (and I get lazy a LOT). Please review! I love to know how I'm doing. Chapter 3 will be out soon!

**-OY  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Kishimoto-san, I was just wondering if...maybe, I don't know...would you let me...have - oh, no? Okay then, that's okay. I don't NEED to have Naruto. Huh? No, Kishimoto-san, of course I'm not crying! I'm not...**

**Warnings: Mild violence. Mildly perverted nature.  
**

Some people may be confused, so I'll try to make this as clear as possible. There will be NO serious pairings in here, mostly because I have no experience with romance (she says dejectedly). I WILL have a bit of soft LeeSaku in here, just because I cannot really picture Sakura single or with any other guy (or girl, I don't judge). There will be some scenes in this story that are practically screaming "LET'S BE FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS!"...yeah, I apologise for any mixed signals (I had to say that to the last guy I met, too...)

Anyway, enough with my (lack of) love life. On with the story!

* * *

**Chapter Three: We Did It! Kinda!**

* * *

Sasuke was just about to slice through a tree with his Kusanagi when Kakashi poofed into existence right in front of him. The moment he paused to consider the good things that may have come out of continuing the attack was his mistake.

"Yo," his almost cut through teacher said, slipping out from behind him to greet…an empty field. To say Kakashi was clueless was an understatement. He turned towards the raven haired Uchiha. "Where are the others?"

"What others?"

"Naruto and Sakura. Around your age and a little –or a lot, in Naruto's case – shorter than you?"

Sasuke shrugged and sheathed his sword. "Probably somewhere else, training. You _are_ pretty late, you know. About three to four hours."

Kakashi eye smiled at this, for most people usually couldn't tell when the masked man was lip smiling or not. However, closing his only eye to show amusement was a fairly wrong decision when facing an S-class nuke-nin who tried to take on the Mizukage and could control mist, as the Copycat Ninja would soon find out. That is, if Naruto and Sakura didn't intervene… "Ah, the reason that I am late is a good one, Sasuke-kun."

"Is it because you're lazy?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, it was actually a very serious and life changing matter."

Sasuke knew by now not to get interested. If it was as ground-breaking as he said, Kakashi would have never said it to anyone in the first place. He was obviously kidding.

"Why aren't you with your team?"

"I like working alone."

Sasuke made sure didn't miss the disappointed look hidden in his teacher's gray eye when he said that. He had been completely oblivious to it last time.

* * *

"Yo!"

"You're late!"

"Maa, gomen. I must have gotten lost on the path of life."

"Liar!"

Sasuke was surprised that Sakura could still talk like that to Kakashi. He was sure she hadn't said it in the eight years since he had died from chakra exhaustion during a mission that he couldn't even remember. All he knew was that Naruto and Sakura were mimicking his usual mood and brooding until they had vengeance.

…Huh, maybe he was changing them for the worse. _Or…at least Sakura,_ Sasuke thought gloomily.

Against his requests / commands, Kakashi had dragged him off by the spikes of his hair and the two of them embarked on a journey to find his other two teammates. If Sakura or Naruto had seen him being handled like that, Sasuke knew they would've laughed until they either died from lack of oxygen or until he stabbed his katana through their lungs.

"Oook. Time for business," Kakashi said, placing a fairly large clock on the middle one of the three log poles that were behind the young genin to be. He then proceeded to take out two bells from his pocket. Little did the jonin know that it would serve as an empowering symbol to two of the children in the future. Or maybe not, if all went well. Sasuke was still seething at the fact that that bandaged idiot Hiruko thought that Kakashi's Sharingon was better than his.

"You will have until noon to get these bells from me. If you don't, you will not be allowed to eat. You'll be tied against these posts behind me and be forced to watch the others eat. It's as simple as that. You are allowed to use ninja weapons and jutsus. If you don't come at me with the intention to kill, you will not succeed."

"Only two bells, huh? That means either way, somebody will have to make a sacrifice," muttered Sakura with a gloved hand on her hip. Sasuke had to admit, she looked a lot more like a ninja compared to the red-dressed worrisome girl from years ago, even thought she still had the same face and body.

"Correct. This way, it is guaranteed that at least one of you will go hungry." Kakashi grinned at hearing Naruto's stomach growl at those words. "Better get ready. Set. Go."

And all of them leapt away.

* * *

"Hey! You and me, fair and square! What do you say!"

"You know, compared to the others, you're kind of…weird."

"The only weird thing here is your haircut!"

Sakura watched the show idly while tugging at her gloves. She looked back a Sasuke. Both of them decided to take to the trees to hide, instead of crawling through bushes like Sakura had before. "So, do you think we should go one on one and pass horribly un-ninja-like like last time? Or should we put some sparks into this test?"

The Uchiha scoffed. "Sparks? I'll be lucky if I can make a successful Chidori. It'll take a long time to match up to Kakashi, even if we are technically stronger than him."

"Then what? We just watch and wait and look like idiots?"

"That's my plan."

Sakura then concluded that her usually power hungry friend was turning senile.

"Are you serious? Can't we at least help Naruto out a little? Just to make the odds in our favor a bit?" she asked.

"Nope."

Sakura got up from the branch, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "lazy ass," and jumped away to help their blond friend…who was currently flapping like a fish out of water and hanging from a tree by one leg. Oh well, he was wet like a fish, anyway. Does anybody know why a lake was in the middle of their training grounds?

"So, Naruto, do you want to team up with me?"

* * *

Sasuke wasn't kidding when he said he worked alone. In the future, Sakura had always beat him up over how he went into combat without anyone knowing, which was so untrue. He just told Kakashi he was going out and might not come back, Kakashi would shrug, and the rest went smoothly. Well, until his former er, present teammates got a hold of him.

So, yeah. Here he was, running through the bushes tracking down Kakashi, who was, by far, stronger than him, at least at his current chakra level. God, he hated this. At least he was once again taller than both Naruto and Sakura again. Back in the future Sasuke had finished his growth pattern at the humiliating height of 5'9, while Sakura beat him by an inch and Naruto towered over them at an intimidating 6'4. Scary. It was nice to be able to look down at people his age again.

"A little frustrated, Sasuke-kun?"

"Stop calling me that. If I don't like hearing it from fangirls, I definitely don't want to hear it from a grown man who hides his face and reads porn. I don't know which disturbs me more…nah, the girls have got you beat," Sasuke said after a bit of consideration. Kakashi looked a little heartbroken; Sasuke _really_ didn't want to know.

"Housenka!"

Kakashi dodged the raining fireballs that came from Sasuke's mouth with mocking ease. "Hm, I'm surprised. Not just any genin can do that. Looks like you're an Uchiha, after all." Wrong thing to say.

* * *

Sakura just finished untying Naruto…for the second time, when lightning finally strike the training grounds. Only…there was something wrong. For one thing, there was no thunder. Another thing was that it was coming from the _ground_, not the sky like your everyday average man killing sparks.

"Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, "What is that?"

"It's a no-good, selfish, incompetent, irrational, headstrong, pigheaded boy - not man, _boy_ – that doesn't know when enough is enough," she growled.

* * *

Kakashi knew Raikiri in a flash, literally. The only difference was it looked like Sasuke knew it better. One minute he was amusing himself with his hopefully fun student, the next thing he knew Sasuke was charging at him with a demonically…or maybe actually angelically glowing arm. Oh, Sasuke did _not_ look fun.

Kakashi was forced to evade yet _another _swipe of lightning that came from the ominous looking jutsu Sasuke was using. Without his Sharingon, Kakashi could only conclude that the Uchiha was literally sucking all the chakra in his body into his arm, then blasting it through his skin. To any normal person, it would have looked like Sasuke's hand started to randomly glow white, grew longer nails, broader knuckles, and that there was blue coloring, the unmistakable blue coloring of lightning element chakra, streaming through his chakra channels.

"_Never_ compare me to my clan. Don't even think of mentioning them in front of me," Sasuke ground out before his jutsu sizzled out. It was only then that Kakashi's naked eye could track individual streaks of lightning running up and down the boy's arms. Sasuke was sweating and panting, there were slight burn marks on his hand. _It seems like it damages the user and target alike_, he thought, unconsciously gripping his bleeding arm. Sasuke had managed to punch him earlier. _I'm lucky he doesn't have proper control of his chakra yet_.

The white haired man had little time to think thoroughly through the thought, though, Sasuke threw a fuuma shuriken at him that seemed to just appear out of thin air. Kakashi was just about to use the kunai he was currently holding to block the weapon when he felt something grab his feet and dragged him into the ground. Good thing too, because right then the fuuma shuriken tore the air over his now lowered and closer to the ground head, leaving a smell of ozone in the air…wait a second, and sliced right through a tree…then another…then yet another…then it was out of sight. Kakashi could only stare, he was pretty sure his kunai wouldn't have been able to block the thing.

Naruto jumped down from the tree he was hiding in and ran up to Sasuke, looking pissed that he had been beaten again.

Sakura crawled up from the small hole she had made at the other end of the field and dusted herself off. If it weren't for the gloves she bought yesterday, she probably would've had bloody fingers. She had rushed into digging after she noticed that Sasuke was serious about the fight.

She glared at the raven haired boy, who had found a spot of dried grass very interesting. "Sasuke, we do not behead our future sensei. Especially not when you haven't even discussed it with the rest of the pupils that will be under his wing."

"It's not my fault if the other pupils don't know what 'intention to kill' means," Sasuke muttered under his breath.

"Oh well. At least one good thing came from this."

Sasuke glanced suspiciously at Sakura. "What?"

"I got the bells!" she exclaimed, holding out said bells and sticking her tongue out at the angered Sasuke. Naruto gaped as two beautiful, silver rings rang through the air as Sakura clanked them together.

"Wow, Sakura-chan! That's amazing!"

"Why am I not surprised?" he replied, frustrated, "You always take all the credit for my work."

Naruto looked curiously at his crush. "You do?"

Sakura's silence told all.

A rumbling noise behind the soon to be genin alerted them that Kakashi had, in some ninja-like way, dug himself out of a six feet deep hole in the relatively suffocating and hard ground. Sasuke noticed the rain was getting harder. Maybe...

"Well, Sasuke-kun," Sasuke cringed at the nickname Kakashi seemed to be sticking to, "Sakura-nezu has little to steal here."

This caused Sakura to raise an eyebrow. "Nezu?" Then she realized something. "Wait a second, what do you mean -"

That was all the pinkette got out before the man in front of them disappeared into thin air, taking his bells with him. In their place were two stones tied by a silver string, most probably Kakashi's hair itself.

"Wah!" shouted Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura kept a straight face, though the clenching of their teeth and fists told a different story.

"That Kakashi, a kage bunshin and a henge. What a guy," muttered Sasuke, something strangely close to admiration floating in his voice. Sakura's face softened for a fraction of a second.

Kakashi's death had, by far, hurt Sasuke the most as a member of Team Seven and Squad Kakashi in the long run. Nobody knew exactly why, nobody expected such a saddening and terrifying reaction from the twenty three year old. But that was another story.

Naruto just got more confused. "But I heard it ring."

Sakura interrupted. "It was most likely a genjutsu. To do all that, it really makes me wonder how much chakra he has." She looked pointedly at Sasuke. "Which means we'll have a better chance of surviving him, let alone beating him, if we _work together. _You know, like a _team_?"

He looked away. "How many Kage Bunshin can you make, Naruto?"

Naruto stiffened at the question, wanting to show off but knowing it wouldn't be the smartest decision. "As many as you want! Just name a number from one to infinity!" Then again, Naruto has never gone for the smartest decision, has he?

* * *

Kakashi had to admit, those kids were good. From Naruto blunt determination (though that blunt determination was, in the end, his downfall), to Sasuke's surprisingly powerful ruthless fighting skills, to Sakura's flexible thinking, he found himself actually having to have to actually come up with a quick escape. They seemed like a spontaneous and oddly formed group, but he could see a team in them, nonetheless. Now if only he could think of a specialty for the three very different preteens.

His only hint was a slight creaking sound before he jumped into another clearing. Good thing, too, because the tree he was just on, not to mention quite a few other ones, started falling down, it's roots uprooted.

Honestly, what was with these kids and hurting trees?

* * *

"Stupid Sasuke with his stupid skills and his stupid plan and these stupid gloves and this stupid tree and this stupid test in this stupid field for this stupid instructor…" muttered Sakura and she lifted another tree and threw it down in the general direction of the jonin.

She had lifted a giant pole from a burning ship and swung it like it was only a baseball bat to save Morino-san from Aoi and his lackeys before without needing Tsunade's training, but tearing deeply rooted trees up from the ground one by one was tough work. _But it doesn't matter_, she mentally scolded herself, _because right now, without my chakra in complete control, this is all I can do. Who knows what will happen if I try punching someone?_ She knew the damage cause by the punch would be somewhere between an embarrassingly weak slap and a mind shattering earthquake. With that in mind, Sakura picked up an already fallen tree and threw it again. She could at least stop having to pull roots from the ground.

* * *

Sasuke was slightly worried.

In his rage against Kakashi, he had wasted most of his chakra on lightning jutsus that he could barely control. He was exhausted.

It was up to Naruto now…Sasuke's eyes snapped open.

_Oh god, what kind of messed up half ass plan have I created?_

* * *

"Hey! Sensei!"

Kakashi snapped his head up as four Narutos feel down from the sky. Thinking they were shadow clones, he prepared to fend himself. He punched one, only to find that his fist touched absolutely nothing. _A regular clone? But the records say he failed that test._

The tests didn't lie. The Naruto spoofed into Sakura before poofing out of existence. Fog from the consecutive poofs covered Kakashi from head to toe. Another clone poofed into existence before him and tried to punch him in the face. He failed quite nicely.

A rumbling alerted Kakashi to jump as another tree fell next to him. He leapt right into another Naruto clone.

Anyone who happened to walk by would've seen a man jumping around to dodge falling trees and orange blobs.

* * *

"Only a few more minutes to noon!" cried Kakashi in a sing-song voice. He was barely winded while Sakura had stopped lifting trees and Naruto got impatient and stopped making clones, opting to attack head on like before. "I admire you for your teamwork, but at this rate you'll never get the bells."

"Ahem."

Everybody turned their heads to a lazy and cocky looking Sasuke that was lying in a nearby tree, one of the few trees that were still left unharmed. "I love you whispered Aimi, as she slowly knelt down to Ayumu. The rain fell softly from his face, as if he was crying tears. Auymu started getting up, bringing an arm around his lover to lower her onto him…"

Naruto was confused. Sakura was annoyed. Kakashi was mortified.

"S-stop reading that!"

Sasuke turned another page and kept on looking at the pages idly. "Why? Icha Icha is a very nice series, though I've read this one before five times. I really hope the author decides to publish his newest work; I'm just dying to see if Ayumu and Aimi are crushed by Keiko, that jealous bitch. She just can't understand how deep their love is."

"Sasuke!" yelled an enraged Sakura, "I thought you swore off those cheap romance novels!"

"It's literature, not sex. Give me a break."

"That literature has sex in it every chapter, you pervert!"

Kakashi had had enough. "Just give me my book back!"

"What's Icha Icha?"

"Nothing, Naruto."

"Here, take a look, dobe."

"Sasuke!"

"Sakura."

"GIVE ME MY BOOK!"

Sasuke seemed to have forgotten the point of getting the book in the first place. "Trade?"

"It was mine in the first place!" yelled Kakashi, desperate to hide his dirty secret. And he was wondering how Sasuke had managed to read an adult only book, five times, no less.

"Finders keepers." Who knew Sasuke would sing so mockingly? He shook the book teasingly for a while before continuing to read. "Oooo, juicy. Sakura, you've got to see this!"

Sakura came up next to him and blushed slightly. "My virgin eyes," she said dazedly.

Naruto jumped in. "Let me see!"

"NNOOO!"

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage glanced up from his paperwork to see Kakashi come in…cuddling a very soaked and muddy book. The other jonins in the room looked strangely at him. Did the genin pass or not? And more, what had happened to the Copy Ninja?

"Team Seven, with Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke," many people in the room heard what sounded very much like a swear of vengeance at the name from Kakashi, "Pass."

Sarutobi continued on writing, he didn't want to know.

* * *

"So what was the point of that whole strategy you made earlier? It failed completely," asked Sakura. It was well pass her curfew, but here she was after dark with a boy. Oh well, she was technically thirty one years old; she could probably disobey that one rule.

Sasuke was kneeling on the middle pole in the training grounds, stargazing. "I realized that. That was why I grabbed Kakashi's book when Naruto Clone tried to punch Kakashi's head."

Sakura looked at him curiously. "Why didn't you grab the bells instead?"

"He was guarding it with his life, I don't think I would've gone unnoticed if I went for the obvious prize," he replied, "And…I kind of wanted to read it again and piss him off. Just for old time's sake."

"I understand," Sakura softly replied.

Sasuke lowered his head. At the angle Sakura was given, he looked like a fallen angel. She gave a shuttering breath. For a second, Sakura almost wished she could love the beautiful boy again. She squashed the thought quickly. Unfortunately, she had had enough of the drama and trauma loving Sasuke had given him. What she would give, though…

"You know, sometimes I wonder…" Sasuke voice, no matter how unnaturally soft it was at the moment, startled Sakura. "Now that we're here, how much can I change?" he asked. "Then again, how much do I _want_ to change?"

Sakura could only put a reassuring hand on his knee. "Tomorrow will come whether we want it to or not, Sasuke. It doesn't matter what you want, this isn't for you. This is for the world we left behind."

* * *

Is it me or is my writing going onto a more funny side? I don't know, I never had a thing for humor. Maybe I'm getting it from my friend's writing. Anyway, sorry for the lame fight scene (if that can even be called a fight), but come on! These guys don't even have proper chakra control yet. And, honestly, I suck at writing fight scenes (it has something to do with my short attention span). As for the title of this chapter, I think it suits the mood of the original episode more. Ah, I loved that episode. Anyway, review and maybe the next chapter will come out faster won't come out as short as this one!

Okay, I have decided (much to the sadness of some people) that this will NOT be a SasuNaru, Narusasu, or SasuSaku romance fic. I'm sorry, but I just can't bring myself to write about it (yet). Sorry! Maybe another time, but not in this fic. Sakura will be paired up with Lee (I think they make just the cutest couple) and Naruto and Sasuke will stay single for the time being. Naruto is much more fun single. I now introduce you to the world of genishism (translation: kind of gen).**  
**

**_OY's Glossary and Encyclopedia: From Yesterday Edition_**

**Chidori Tsume - Chidori Claw. Varied amounts of lightning enhanced chakra are forced into the arms and pressurized out, making the lightning much more powerful and visible. The chakra forms into a sharp, claw like shape, but still keeps in the average form of the human hand. The claws are able to extend, though it uses up a lot more chakra and is less effective the farther it goes. If the target is strangled while this jutsu is active, they will immediately die. Due to the insane concentration needed to use and maintain Chidori Tsume, Sasuke is only able to use it in one hand at a time and tries not to use it regularly.(A/N: Sorry! I had to get rid of the actual name of the jutsu because Kakashi knows Chidori and I don't want him to be suspicious just yet.)  
**

**Nezu- A variant form of the Japanese word for "rat". Kakashi calls Sakura this because of her habit of sneaking into people's business and the fact that she steals things from Sasuke; credit, knowledge, and money alike.**

**-OY  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: "Hey, lawyer, how's that document coming?" "Sorry, OY, but I can't seem to convince the judge and jury you should own Naruto." "Aw, come on!"**

**Warnings: Cursing. Mild Violence. Implied Gore. Angst. A Bad Sense of Humor.**

AAAAAHHHHHHH! This took SO long! And it's actually shorter than most chapters I write! SORRY!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Four: Extraordinary**

* * *

"D-rank missions" is just a fancy way of saying one thing: chores. And it's _really_ hard to get excited about being a ninja when you're forced to run errands for people who don't even like you and being paid minimum wage and all the beatings you sometimes get for making a totally innocent mistake (like mistaking the child you're supposed to babysit for a burglar), but Naruto isn't really complaining. Nope, not at all. It doesn't even bother him that his sensei does nothing but read in the shade of the tree while he works his fingers to the bone in the hot sun. It doesn't matter that the Uchiha bastard seems to be able to do anything and everything. And it was absolutely great that Sakura was sick and couldn't join them today, leaving him slightly heartbroken and miserable. Yes, everything was just dandy.

"HEY! Old man! I am sick of this! I feel like I'm going to explode!"

Yes, everything was great.

* * *

Sasuke forgets, which is a shock to most people. It _is_ possible for the almighty Uchiha heir to forget things, you know. Especially things that happened almost twenty years ago. If only Sakura was here, then they could compare notes. But nooooo, she made an excuse that she was ill so she could get in some extra strength training in while he was left to rot in the sun with the dobe.

Okay, something was supposed to happen today, or at least after Naruto bothers the Sandaime Hokage enough to get them a serious mission. Sasuke barely remembered, but he had an odd feeling that Naruto and his friendship rivalry hatred relationship thing would somehow get very awkward from now on.

All of a saddened in Iruka's rant about respect, or Naruto's lack of therefore, the front door of the Hokage's office burst open to reveal a panting Sakura.

"Sorry I'm late! It turns out my choking was only a sore throat. I can go on missions now!" she said while grinning sheepishly. Her voice was suspiciously fairly normal sounding, though…Sasuke noticed something that made his eye twitch.

"Did you…dye your hair green?"

Sakura nodded. "Yep." Sure enough, Sakura's pink hair had a single streak of lime green running down the left side, making her head look a little like a cherry. Her hair was also much flatter and she had bangs. "I got bored, so I decided to get a haircut, just for the hell of it. Then I thought 'Hey, wouldn't it be neat if I expressed my eternal love and gratitude to the power of youth?', so I chose the most youthful color I could think of - which was green - and tried to dye my hair. My mom caught me, though, so I could only get away with a little part of my hair dyed. She said I looked like I had a problem with my head, which I don't understand. I mean, hello? I have pink hair! And it's natural! You really think pink hair is that normal and sophisticated looking? I actually think it'd be better if my hair was green. I know a few people with green hair, but _never _with pink. So we argued and she said…"

Sasuke stopped listening after "yep."

Naruto started really paying attention when Sakura started talking about her family life. Was that how mother and daughter relationships were like?

Kakashi promptly freaked out when Sakura mentioned "youth." Oh god, if she turned into another Gai - _NO!, _he thought, _I must never let that happen!_

So Sasuke reads porn books and Sakura embraces the Springtime of Youth (such a thing deserves to be capitalized), it made the Hokage wonder if they went insane during the time before teams were assigned. Who knew, maybe they went on a date that made Sasuke go lose it and Sakura, being the faithful *cough*obsessive*cough* fangirl she was, decided to crack with him.

Then again, maybe it was just teenage drama (though the Hokage should be worried about this. This syndrome is the leading cause of death in the shinobi world, right above random killing sprees and unpredictable weather changes. Yes, mother nature does kill a lot of people. Especially ninjas who want to try to use their jutsus to cut lightning bolts. Kakashi, you're very lucky you succeeded. And supervising this messed up team is your punishment for being so stupid).

"And that's when we discovered my mother was allergic to leeches!"

Ah, mother and daughter relationships…

"Alright, I will grant you one C-rank mission. Your objective is to serve, protect, and escort an individual -"

"Oooo! Who is it? Oh, I bet it's a feudal lord. Or maybe a princess -"

"Yes, and I'm part leprechaun."

"Just keep on dreaming, dobe."

"Quiet! You're interrupting the Hokage!"

The front door creaked open and revealed a drunken looking old man. "Hey, how long's it going to take you to get my bodyguards -" Tazuna froze once he saw Sakura. Naruto remembered that she must have seen the geezer when she was entering the building and, being the great girl she was, engaged a conversation with him. He wondered why he was so scared.

Sakura's grin reminded Sasuke of a shark. Or Suigetsu, either one. "Why hello, Tazuna-san. It looks like we're going to be traveling together for a while. Isn't that nice?"

Tazuna shakily glanced at the Sandaime Hokage, looking very petrified and nauseas. "Y-you can't be serious…"

Sarutobi just raised an eyebrow. "Now, now. These genin will be more than enough to protect you on your journey. Do not fear about your life, they are very strong-willed."

"I don't d-doubt you, Hokage-sama, it's just…"

Tazuna heard a crack of knuckles and paled. He stayed silent for the rest of the meeting.

Sasuke glanced at Sakura. "I don't blame you," he told Tazuna, "She scares me, too."

* * *

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes. ONE! TWO! THREE! I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's -"

"For god's sake, shut up!"

Naruto and Sakura glared at Tazuna for ruining their song. It was a nice and distracting duet! Tazuna looked at the other two more reserved ninjas for support against Sakura, but they were both caught up in not caring. Kakashi had his head tucked in a dirty looking orange book and Sasuke…also had his head tucked in a dirty looking orange book, albeit more secretly.

"Hey, kid, what are you reading?"

Sasuke glanced up at Tazuna with a glare. "You have condemned us all."

The older man looked at the boy strangely. "Huh?" That's when he noticed the pink beast's (Sakura, for the oblivious people) head slowly turning towards Sasuke. If you listened closely, you could hear a slight, overdramatic creaking sound as it moved.

"Sasukeeeeeee…" Everybody shivered at the demonic voice that shouldn't have belonged to a girl with pink hair, of all people. "What did I tell you about those dirty porn stories?"

He immediately snapped the book closed, put it in his backpack, and took out a kunai in one swift movement. "It didn't seem to bother you when you were reading about when Ayumu and Aimi rented that cheap motel room and -"

"Shut up. They're here."

Sasuke immediately jumped into the air and threw his kunai right next to his sensei. A second later it pinned a chain to the ground. "Wha?" shouted Tazuna.

Sakura snapped her head up. "Naruto, game up! We've got two chuunin level enemies! Protect the drunkard!"

Naruto, being slightly more trained and not petrified since his sensei was still standing at the moment, was able to perform his ninja expectations much better this time and immediately made two kage bunshin to make a triangular shaped barrier around Tazuna with his bodies.

"Housenka," muttered Sasuke as he felt warm chakra build up inside of his lungs. In one exhale of air, he spit it out. The Demon Brothers were forced to dodge the small, twirling fireballs. One of them ran three meters in front of Sakura's waiting fist. That's when it happened.

The brother was sent flying right into a tree, seemingly being pushed into it. Kakashi waited a few seconds…yep, he was still two feet up against the tree, his shoes not touching the ground. He looked at his only female student, who had a wicked grin on her face and was still holding up her fist, though it was more erect now.

"And this is the good side of freakish chakra control!" she simply said.

Sasuke landed next to her. "You cannot be serious, you can do that now?"

Sakura shrugged. "Well, I'm not super strong anymore, so I guess this is the next best thing. You see, all I do is focus my chakra into any body part and force it out. It's kind of like what Neji does with his ultimate defense, but a lot less complicated and draining."

"I still don't get that. I mean, both Gaara and Neji's 'ultimate defenses' were conquered or at least matched by regular jutsus."

"Sasuke, just because you can do Chidori almost a hundred times a day, doesn't mean it's a simple jutsu for the rest of the shinobi world. And I'm pretty sure Naruto is the only person in this time period that can use Kyuubi's chakra. Now that I'm onto this subject, do you have any clue how hard it is to compare to you two?"

"It's not my fault you were created to be completely useless."

"HEY!"

Kakashi walked up to the two whisper-arguing teens. "You know, there were _two_ enemies that appeared."

They looked at each other, then at the panting Naruto, then at the body beneath his foot. "Oops, sorry."

* * *

"It was you they were after, wasn't it?" Sakura questioned Tazuna, using that voice that all women use to get what they want. Tazuna was left in cold sweat, wondering if Gatou was really _that _bad compared to the pinkette.

Sasuke stood to the side sneak-reading again. He could just use the Tsukuyomi to get answers out of the bridge builder peacefully and more effectively, but Sakura was in one of her moods and he didn't want his skin peeled off just yet, thank you very much.

Tazuna whimpered to himself. "Somebody, please, save me!"

Naruto tried to take a step forward, but froze in fear at the sight of Sakura's murderous eyes. He didn't move an inch for the rest of the conversation. Kakashi glanced at Sasuke, saw him shake his head, and gave Tazuna a reassuring smile (although nobody could see it underneath that mask of his). "Don't worry, Tazuna-san, it'll all be over soon."

"Yes," hissed Sakura, making the encouraging comment into something that sounded like a death sentence, "It'll all be over soon."

Tazuna proceeded to tell Team 7 about his country's history, screaming like a little girl through the whole speech.

* * *

Sakura watched Sasuke as they walked away from the Demon Brothers. He was fidgeting, badly.

"...If you need to, you can. I don't think they affect us that much in the future," she said quietly. She hated herself for giving in, but this is what Sasuke needed. He needed to slowly become normal again, like a drug user needed time to get off a drug. All he needed were fewer and fewer doses with more and more time in between and he would eventually not even need the "remedy" anymore. At least, Sakura tried to convince herself so.

He silently gave her a appreciating and apologizing look and left the group. Sakura made sure nobody noticed.

Sasuke returned about an hour later with a faint smell of smoke in his clothes

* * *

Naruto didn't like silence, but he was forced into silence through the whole entire boat ride (SEVENTEEN HOURS! Seventeen hours of nothing but that stupid paddle going in and out and in and out of that water!) to the Wave Country. Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi seemed to be perfectly fine with it, but he needed to pee! Badly!

The silence was finally broken by Kakashi. "So, I think we need to get out priorities straight. Do we drop Tazuna off at his country and boat away, leaving him to die a probably slow and painful death, or do we be good people and try to help him finish the bridge and bring freedom and prosperity back to the Wave Country?"

"I vote a slow and painful death."

"I second Sakura's opinion."

"Sasuke-teme! That hardly seems fair. Besides, who knows when we'll get a mission like this again."

"Don't go all idealist on my, dobe. Plus, it was Sakura who chose first, why don't you nag her?"

"Because I love her! And what do you mean nag!"

"I still say off with his head."

"Same."

"Bastard! Don't ignore me!"

"It's settled, then," Kakashi said while clapping his hands and eye-smiling, "We assist Tazuna in finishing his bridge, protecting him to our last moment."

Sakura and Sasuke sweat-dropped, of course Kakashi wouldn't listen to their opinion. They were starting to _really_ get tired of being "lowly genin."

"…I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves… "

* * *

Kakashi lifted his head up from Icha Icha Paradise to look at his team.

Naruto, in all his stunning, "Kill-Me Orange" glory, was, of course, taking the lead.

Sakura was between him and Tazuna, mostly because whenever she got behind the old man he would abruptly stop and start hyperventilating, saying something like "she's going to get me, she's going to get me…". Gracious, just what did sweet little Sakura do to the man? Kakashi had always thought that out of all the members of his team, she'd be the most sane and predictable, but apparently he was wrong. In fact, _Naruto_ seemed actually somewhat normal compared to her. He would need to appoint a parent-sensei conference about her sometime. That is, if they survived this mission, of course.

Though, his opinion on Sasuke had, so far, been fairly accurate, though, beside from wanting to cure blindness and reading Icha Icha, of course. Kakashi nearly fell over from shock when the boy had pulled him to the side during their walk to form a deal that Kakashi would by the latest issues of the series for him – Sasuke is, technically, far too young to buy those types of books without somebody getting suspicious – and the Uchiha would, in turn, pay all the ramen bills that he promised Naruto would eventually throw at the man. To prove his point, Sasuke had taken out a notebook to show his work on the difference between the price of one book and maybe a few trinkets (keychains, bookmarks, ect) compared to Naruto's average debt from ramen in a month. Kakashi had been horrified and immediately agreed to the deal. Swearing to follow it on Mikoto's grave and Susano'o's Amaterasu'ed bone defense, whatever the latter meant. Kakashi didn't really want to know.

His book snapped closed.

"Everybody, duck!"

Naruto cursed as he tackled Tazuna to the ground. If he hadn't, the giant blade that had sailed over them would have surely taken both their heads off. _B-rank mission, _his panicked brain thought to the side, remembering the explanation old-man Hokage had given his team and him when they had gotten this mission, _maybe even A-rank, if we're that unlucky, which we are. _The missions had seemed so easy when they were coming out of a kind old man's mouth; Sarutobi hadn't gone into detail about how many shinobi died on assignments every day. And he was the one sending them to their deaths.

Of course, Naruto being Naruto, didn't think it through to that point. But if he did, I'm sure he would've thought over if he really wanted to be Hokage or not.

On the blade stood a man just as tall as his weapon, and maybe just as big. Muscles flexed and readied themselves for a fight beneath naked skin. His chest was exposed, a vulnerability to most people, but, to Naruto, it only meant that this shinobi was so strong that he did not need the protection. A killer's choice of wardrobe, movable and intimidating, was worn beneath the waist, and a slashed headband adorned the head of spiky black hair.

If he wasn't a shinobi, Naruto didn't know what was.

"Momochi Zabuza," whispered Sakura as she slowly rose up from the ground, a look of disgust on her face. Naruto briefly wondered if the look was towards the enemy or towards herself. She could've dodged the blade and send it right back to its owner in a heartbeat, he knew she could. Why didn't she? "Looks like we're in for some trouble."

Anxiousness filled Naruto. He ran forward to the imposing man, only to be stopped by Kakashi. "Sensei?"

He was surprised to see his teacher wearing a dangerous face that was worryingly serious. His left eye was uncovered, the blue cloth of the Konoha hitai-ite pulled up to reveal a scarred eye. The eye was glowing red.

"Protect Tazuna, Naruto. That is your mission. As for this enemy, well, I'll have to tend to him myself."

Right when he was about to object, Naruto was cut off by a gentle voice. "Naruto," called Sakura, "Leave this to the men. We aren't needed until necessary." He looked back to find Sasuke and her standing by Tazuna's sides, their backs turned to him and kunai in hand. If Naruto had just met them, he would've thought they were dazing of and relaxing by their lazy stances, but over the months her had learned better. The firm, straight line of Sakura's mouth – she was frustrated at backing down, but didn't disobey – , the faint twitching of Sasuke's free left hand – he was ready to flame the whole battlefield, if necessary – , they were two of the few signs that his friends were very serious about this.

And he should be, too.

Naruto went to the front point of their manmade triangle (had they saved the spot with the best of the upcoming for him?) and stood ready. He was about to experience his first really deadly battle.

Two chakras were released. Kakashi's firm, cool, and unyielding. Zabuza's cold, eager, and hungry. "Sharingan Kakashi, the Copy-Cat Ninja," Zabuza drawled, "It's an honor to meet someone who has mastered over a thousand techniques. Though, I wonder, will any of them help you win this battle?"

"They'll have to. I have too many things on the line here, Demon of the Mist," Kakashi answered.

Zabuza raised a non-existent eyebrow and lifted his head, as though noticing the genin behind their sensei for the first time. "Oh? I don't really see anything too precious, other than that bridge-builder, of course." Naruto silently seethed at this, but remained quiet. His teammates were already taking their first steps to becoming ninjas, he would only disgrace them even more by retorting childishly at the comment. "You've become a jounin instructor, Hatake. Why?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "To ensure that the Will of Fire is properly passed on!"

He charged.

Metal and metal, kunai and blade. They met again and again in the available space given by the trees of the forest, leaving a sound of ringing and a spark or two in their wake. Naruto couldn't see what was going on; his eyes were far too slow. His sensei and their enemy were fighting in super speed and he couldn't keep up. An encouraging hand was placed on his arm and he looked at Sakura, who had a smile on her face.

"Don't worry, I can't see, either. Just depend on Sasuke for now."

Sure enough, Sasuke's eyes were everywhere. He glanced at one random spot for a second, then looked at another one. Right after his eyes left the previous spot, a clash of metal sparked there. Sasuke seemed to be able to see the future, and Naruto could only gape in awe. All the while, his eyes stayed their obsidian color.

* * *

To Sasuke's eyes, the fight was simple. He did not let his emotions affect his eyes in any way; that was the rule he had made for himself a long time ago. His eyes had brought him shame, and he had brought his eyes shame. Itachi's eyes, who had only wanted to see peace and happiness. Instead, they had to see how insane Sasuke had become during his teenage years.

But that wasn't the point now. The point was that emotions would only slow his eyes and mind down. And he couldn't let that happen.

* * *

"It's over."

Sasuke finally closed his eyes and slumped a little. Naruto didn't know what happened. One minute the fight was going on strong, the next Kakashi was sent flying through multiple trees, breaking each one in half. Naruto didn't need to be a medic to know his sensei probably had a concussion at the minimum.

Naruto fought down a shiver as a cruel laughter filled the clearing; it was almost as if the air was so scared of their foe it had run away. The chakra of the man was chokingly dark and, for the first time in a while, Naruto began to doubt himself.

He took a step back - "Dobe" - and stopped. Sasuke wasn't looking at him, but Naruto was sure the raven had spoken to him. Then, in a strong, reassuring voice, Sasuke spoke again. "Dobe, don't you dare start backing out now. You were the one who wanted a challenge in the first place. Well, here it is. This guy's probably the strongest person we'll meet for now. You let this one go, you let that will of yours go," he said, taking out a kunai and finally facing the blond. "If you wish to rise above the ordinary, first you must do something extraordinary. Only then are you even in the _running_ to be something great."

Sakura turned to the two boys with that Cheshire grin of hers. "Wow, Sasuke. That's the longest speech I've ever heard from you. Why don't you talk more? Your voice combined with that dramatic dialogue is very sexy."

He turned to her with an annoyed look. "Thank you, Sakura, for ruining my dramatic moment. For your answer: I save my voice for special occasions, and do you _want _ me to be one of those protester guys who talk all day trying to sound cool with monologuing?"

"I thought you were already past the 'I must tell everyone my horrid past so they will pity me like I pity myself via monologuing' phase," Sakura said with a face. "You know, after the Valley and Hebi and Itachi and God and all that other shit."

Sasuke looked again at Naruto, who was too confused to be frustrated that his two other team members seemed to be speaking in another language. "Here's your extraordinary moment, Naruto. Do you wish to take it?"

Naruto just barely heard Sakura yell "Hey, are you even listening to me, Sasuke?" before Sasuke threw his kunai at him. Time went in slow motion as the kunai broke through the thick air and tension of the battle going on, much like Sasuke's voice. "Choose now," he said, and Naruto found his limp arms moving on their own without his consent. His heart was beating fast and loud. He grabbed the blade, just before it pierced through skin. Naruto looked down at the weapon, fear still in his eyes. If he hadn't caught it in time, the kunai would've gone right into his heart.

Sasuke had wanted to kill him.

He dropped it immediately, scared that the boy he had considered a friendly rival would even think of a stunt like that, let alone do it with a straight face. Time caught up again and Naruto snapped his head up to Sasuke, obvious mistrust in his stance.

His comrade (enemy?) merely smirked. "Good."

Sasuke wasn't in front of Naruto anymore. The orange-clad boy's eyes widened at the faint sound of footsteps behind him. Too fast to be Sakura, too quiet to be Sasuke, and Kakashi and Tazuna wouldn't dare move in their situation.

"TAZUNA – !"

That was as far as Naruto got before fresh, warm blood splattered across his face.

* * *

Okay, any questions? Sorry this took so long. I'm actually known to quit at everything I do (except for a select few things like piano), and I almost gave up on . Why? Because I'm lazy like that. But then I got all these emails saying how I was on Favorites and Story Alerts and I read all the reviews again and - I guess I'm just trying to say: thank you. Thanks to all the readers and reviewers who liked these last few chapters! You guys really helped me get back on my feet, and I'll try not to disappoint (though my "fight scene" was VERY disappointing, I'm sure)! I'll try to update soon!

**-OY  
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	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I'm glad I don't own Naruto. You know why? Because then I would never update it and it would have a sucky plot and sense of humor. Kishimoto does so much better.  
**

**Warnings: Cursing. Angst. The Usual Bad Humor. Gore. Sasuke Smiles (kinda). SPOILERS (yes, there is an actual one this chapter).  
**

I would just like to say...I hate myself right now T-T. I'm so sorry for the long wait, and I know you have better things to do. I don't expect forgiveness, I just wanted to apologize. Again, sorry.

And, just another note, this chapter's a fail T-T.

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* * *

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**Chapter Five: Break**

* * *

_He dropped it immediately, scared that the boy he had considered a friendly rival would even think of a stunt like that, let alone do it with a straight face. Time caught up again and Naruto snapped his head up to Sasuke, obvious mistrust in his stance._

_His comrade (enemy?) merely smirked. "Good."_

_Sasuke wasn't in front of Naruto anymore. The orange-clad boy's eyes widened at the faint sound of footsteps behind him. Too fast to be Sakura, too quiet to be Sasuke, and Kakashi and Tazuna wouldn't dare move in their situation._

_"TAZUNA – !"_

_That was as far as Naruto got before fresh, warm blood splattered across his face._

* * *

_**Drip, drip, drip.**_

"Huh?"

_**Drip, drip.**_

"Uwa…"

_**Drip.**_

"Tazuna!"

"Naruto!"

"Sasuke!"

"Kakashi-san!"

"Sakura-chan!"

"No!"

"Heh."

"What the hell?"

"Damn…"

Zabuza smirked behind his bandages. Soon enough, that bloodthirsty smirk turned into a full out laugh. It filled the clearing, unrelenting and horrifying. Naruto could only stare at the scene before him.

"You're pretty good, kid. To see through my attack like that takes quite a bit of skill."

Sakura only nodded to show she was listening, her eyebrows furrowed in pain. Zabuza's sword had cut right into her side, barely missing vital organs and Tazuna. "Bastard. Taking advantage of a moment like that." Sakura probably muttered a little more after that, but Naruto didn't hear it. Part because he was in shock, part because she had fallen to the ground.

Zabuza removed his sword from the limp girl's body, ignoring that gasp of shock the action caused. "Nothing personal, girl. It's just a job."

Sakura smirked darkly. "Isn't it always?"

_Damn_, Sakura thought, trying to desperately to sit up, _I can't move…_

She glared up at Zabuza as he lifted his imposing weapon once again, aiming at the helpless at Tazuna this time. Tazuna took a few stumbling steps back, not sure what to do. He didn't want to die, not until his country was saved from Gatou.

Zabuza swung down –

* * *

Haku watched the fight between his master and their enemy anxiously. He trusted that Zabuza could take care of the genin team and the bridge builder, but if there was any hitch in their plan he would have to step in. Now that the sensei of the team and the girl were down, Haku allowed himself to relax a little.

"I wonder how some people do it."

Haku's poise immediately stiffed in attention. He quickly spun around, but saw nothing behind him. "How foolish of me," he whispered to himself. He kept his guard up, just in case, and turned back to his master's fight.

Only to be greeted by a wall of darkness.

"I wonder how some people do it," the mysterious voice repeated and Haku whipped his head around, searching in every direction. It didn't help, all he could see was black, black, black…

It scared Haku.

Everything around him was dark, not the misty darkness he had experienced in many other illusions, but solid. Among the darkness stood himself, who somehow managed to emit light, but in a negative color. His eerie off-color blue glow was the only light in the realm, never extending far enough to let him see what lied ahead of the dark. Even now, Haku could feel the realm creeping up on him, not liking his light. A wisp of darkness, the only thing that was similar to normal illusions, slid up his arm. Haku quickly pulled his arm back. He knew how to fight this kind of battle method, just let the darkness take over you and, when your assailant was cocky enough to let down his guard, release your chakra to the extreme and knock him unbalanced, dispelling everything. He could easily release whatever this was.

Mistake number one: expecting the ordinary.

Suddenly, Haku felt himself being pierced by what seemed like a thousand needles. One in his right arm, two striking down onto his left shoulder, a multitude running parallel down his sides and legs. His face and chest area was left unharmed. Apparently this was a torture technique, it was not meant to strike anything important like vital organs or vocal cords. Haku's blue light finally spread out enough to let him see what was around him, and he immediately regretted his wish. Spikes everywhere, coming out from all directions, appearing from an abyss that the dim blue light couldn't determine. But it could determine the deadly points. In fact, Haku could see every individual pillar in stunning detail, from the razor sharp points to the black splatters of _something_.

"Blood…" Haku said. He looked down at his own body, which was spilling too much blood to be healthy, black blood. He looked back up with fearful eyes. "It's other people's…" The blue light changed to purple, then red. That's when Haku truly saw the terrifying state of this world. His negative colors were gone, replaced by stains of his gushing blood that was red. Red, red, red. The spikes were black that gave off their own red tint at the points. Blood was all over the place, some brown and caking, some still freely dripping. Some droplets were even defying gravity, floating in bubble-like forms that shifted with some unknown force.

Red. And Haku turned his head to the side, finding something that chilled him to the bone. The Demon Brothers, who Zabuza had sent to destroy the bridge builder only a few days ago, lay disfigured and broken, bent in all different places, places that were not meant to be bent. All their armor was gone, including that facemasks they wore so Haku could see the fear in their eyes. What had it been like for them? To find themselves in this unfamiliar torture facility, then suddenly die?

This person, the owner of this illusion, had killed the Demon Brothers. And he would probably kill Haku, too. And maybe even Zabuza.

He would not let that happen.

"I wonder how some people can be satisfied with just watching a fight. Why not participate? Why not have some fun?"

"Tell me," it continued, seeming to come out of nowhere "Is there something you find precious?"

_Zabuza_-_sama_, he instinctively thought, then,_ No,_ _I will not give in. Not now, when Zabuza-sama needs me! _Gathering all his strength, Haku ignored the part of his mind that wished to cower and finally managed to move his arms. _More…more…_

"Oh?" the voice said curiously.

And finally, with arms that felt like iron weights, Haku managed to move his fingers instinctively into a world-wide known form. Sweating bullets and panting as if the air was giving out on him – and maybe it was – he molded his chakra. "Genjutsu," hissed Haku, quickly forming the handsign. "Kai!"

The red world swirled for a few seconds before seeming to dissolve out of nowhere. Haku let himself slouch a little when the spikes in his body disappeared. It seemed like the charade would soon be over.

He didn't know what he had been expecting. A fight, maybe. Even a kunai ready to stab him in the neck. But not this.

Because none of those happened and he found himself in another world, one that confused him to no end.

I'm surprised," called the voice. Haku turned around, free from the pain and torture of the genjutsu. In fact, he'd never felt better. His eyes widened. "Not many people get past the initial shock. Looks like I have found a strong one."

* * *

"Ah…" breathed Zabuza. He then narrowed his eyes. "Move, boy, or you'll get the same treatment as your female teammate over there," he said, motioning to Sakura. Sakura looked grimly at the sight before her, noticing something was off but not recognizing it. Naruto was in front of her, just like always in the life before. To think, after all the extensive training she had gone through and all the future knowledge she held, Naruto still protected her. She was still so weak. Now staring at the trails of scarlet blood that cascaded down his arm from where his hand was holding Zabuza's blade in place, Sakura slowly felt the inner insecurity that had been her downfall around this time in her past life creep on her; same as always. She clenched her fists. _No matter what, even if we manipulate time, it will always hold us mercilessly in its grasp, _she thought.

Then a growling snapped her out of her thoughts. "Wait…" she started, then, with her uneasy stomach freezing still, she choked back a scream of horror. Red. Red. "No…no, this wasn't supposed…what have we done...Sasuke?"

Tazuna stood still. _This…_he thought. Then he started suffocating as a burning wave of heat swept past him, he fell to the ground. _Damnit!_ He swore his lungs were on fire! In a desperate attempt at self-protection, seeing that his bodyguards had bigger problems, Tazuna curled up in a fetal position and closed his eyes. He unconsciously started crying from how dry his eyes were getting from Naruto's – no, that _thing's _– power. Sakura let out a gasp as she too curled around herself, her skin beginning to sweat and burn from heatstroke caused by the intense temperature. Could this really be Kyuubi's chakra? She had never experienced it to this degree before; Naruto always kept it in check at all times, even when he didn't mean to.

"_**Move, huh?**_" said the demon in a human disguise, revealing bloodthirsty red eyes, "_**Just try killing me!**_" With that, he let out a horrifying roar and his chakra intensified to unimaginable degree. "_**It's been a long time since I faced off with a 'demon'! Now we can see who's really more destructive: a fire fox from hell, or a water dragon who has long since abandoned his ocean."**_

Tazuna attempted to scoot away before stopping and looking at the poor, pink girl that had gotten caught up in the caustic aura. "This isn't the kid…" Tazuna whispered. "Is it?" Was that the bumbling idiot who was the only one who tried, albeit failed, to save him from Sakura's rage?

Sakura stared with wide eyes. "Naruto…" She pushed her arms under her and got halfway up before falling back down. Again. Again. Sakura growled at her weakness, she couldn't even rise a foot! _It's just like old times. Me: crying and clueless on what to do._ "Naruto, please stop!"

She should've seen this coming. She should've been stronger for Naruto. Sasuke had warned her!

"_Come on, guys. Our sensei's bound to be at the academy now. It's been almost three hours," Sakura yelled._

_Sasuke was the first down his tree with Naruto just a few seconds behind him. Unlike the latter, Sasuke looked worn but pleased, his hair tussled and his new T-shirt slightly wrinkled. Sakura smirked at this. _

"_Oh? Did Naruto get too rough, Sasuke? I thought he would've been more gentle during-"_

"_Haruno. Not. The. Time." Sakura giggled but shut up._

_Sasuke rarely called her by her last name, only when he was feeling something so strong that he needed her to focus but act normal. Normally, people, even ninja, didn't notice this trick that they secretly created, so it worked to their advantage perfectly._

_To their not-so-surprise, Kakashi was not there when Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura entered the room. Heck, nobody was there. Naruto looked pissed and excused himself from the group without a reason, not even pausing to listen to their response._

"_That was strange. Naruto usually doesn't act that straightforward. I mean, he acts straightforward, but not in that way. You know? Like-"_

"_Sakura," Sasuke stressed, "I felt Kyuubi while Naruto and I were training."_

_The girl stopped mid-speech. She turned perfunctorily around the room, looking for any genjutsus like the one they experienced earlier today before turning back to her raven haired friend with a horrified gaze._

"_You what?"_

Sakura fell to the ground once again, her wound bleeding profusely. "Naruto…I'm sorry. I failed again."

Zabuza applied more force to his sword, making the cut on Naruto's hand deeper. "I see, so you've got a little secret there, don't you? Looks like I've got a challenge on my hands."

"_**Human**_," Kyuubi answered, "_**Be scared of the unknown**_."

The man frowned. "Wha -"

In one fluid motion, Kyuubi sent the sword flying into the foggy gray sky.

* * *

Haku opened and closed his mouth behind his mask at the face before him. A young boy, hardly out of the academy. He had a pale face and black eyes that reminded him of a piano and, like the music a piano creates, was very beautiful. He wore simple, casual clothing that didn't match the regal hint of his features and had wild, shiny hair that gave him a dangerous look. On any normal person it would've looked like a mess of social status, on him it looked defiantly charming.

He talked again, the same voice had talked scarily in Haku's illusion of torture. This time, it was warm and interested. "Tell me, what's your drive? It takes someone with an insane will to survive one of my genjutsus, not like those two weaklings I killed before."

"You're that boy who disappeared," Haku started, then caught on to what he was saying. "Wait, so you're saying that the Demon Brothers in that genjutsu were real?"

He shrugged. "I have a special type of genjutsu, you know? I'm surprised you could make it through Kage Yari no Tani, though."

"You killed them?"

Again, he shrugged. It was like to him taking a life didn't matter. It was only a number in his head. A casualty number. Death was not a simple matter like that. But he already understood that, didn't he? And that knowledge had left him jaded. Children his age should _not _think like that.

Yet he did. One look into those calm but secretly insane eyes told Haku that. This boy was not a normal child. He had treaded through hell and back easily. The boy was a ruthless killer, much like Haku.

Only he seemed to enjoy it.

_But…why is this place so wonderful, then? _the older ninja thought. Indeed, above him was a pure blue sky with plenty of puffy, cotton candy looking white clouds that actually had visible silver linings. The grass below him was fresh and green and spotted with the occasional small yellow flower, even though he was sitting on them. A pleasantly cool breeze gracefully moved shimmering water in a lake that reflected the afternoon sun. On top of that lake was a small dock and on top of that was the boy, who actually looked pretty at peace himself.

"I just need a little…justification once in a while," he said while lop-smiling. "But anyway," he continued, "Let's get down to business."

"Business?" Haku asked.

He raised an eyebrow at Haku's interruption and carefully explained it as if he was talking to a child. Only that the words were far from child friendly. "The only reason I haven't killed you yet it because I want to use you." Very far.

Haku stayed silent at that blunt explanation. Yes, he had been expecting that the point of sparing him was for that purpose. Even if this boy was only a child, he was a ninja. And ninjas have a different way of life then all the moral stories civilian parents tell their children. Morale, compassion, dignity, those were all taken from shinobi. What was left was a purpose and the knowledge that the purpose must be fulfilled by any means necessary.

He shifted, seeing if there was any way out of this confrontation.

His captor read his mind. "Nobodyhas the ability to get through this technique," the boy paused before his face got slightly brighter, "At least, not anymore. Not currently. Hopefully soon, though, I miss him."

Haku blinked at the last statement, it didn't make any sense. Was he trying to confuse him? Or had he really lost his mind? "What do you want from me?"

The boy blinked, as if coming out of his own little world. "To live," he said, as if it was blaringly obvious.

To say Haku was shocked was an understatement. "You want me to live? After that stunt you just pulled?"

He closed his eyes and sighed and, for a brief second, Haku wondered just how old the boy really was. "No, for me it doesn't matter if you live or die. It's that teammate of mine."

"The orange one?"

"No, the one with the freakish hair. But, I guess once you think about it, it really is for that dobe." He opened his eyes. "Neither Sakura nor I want Naruto to experience a kill this early in life," his eyes got a soft sheen, a sign of temporary weakness.

And the world around them gave to the mercy – or rather lack of – of hell.

The bright, clear sky cracked open to reveal a leakage of violate crimson. The clouds, now off-white and turning black, started swirling ominously and their controller himself swayed on his feet, the first sign of weakness he had allowed himself. The second was actually falling to the ground as his eyes started bleeding. He gingerly pushed on his extended arms and managed to sit up, but he has much paler than before.

The coldness came to the boy's pain glazed eyes. "I'm losing control. Please, don't make this harder than it has to be," he managed to say calmly despite the situation.

"I must get back to my master," came Haku's stubborn reply. If things were this chaotic in this controlled environment, just what was going on outside?

"Hn." He sighed, and more blood leaked along his eyes as the crimson chakra continued taking over the peaceful land. "Would you be willing to listen more if there wasn't a battle going on?"

Haku nodded.

"Then I'll meet you after this battle."

The landscape started to get foggy with Haku's master's jutsu. Haku sighed, maybe it wasn't too late.

Then he froze. The boy froze.

"What the…?"

"Damnit."

* * *

Kyuubi laughed. Finally, after such long waiting, he was free! The seal had been weakening drastically for the past few weeks for unknown reasons, and he had been able to slip out of his "eternal" imprisonment.

"Kushina, I have triumphed," he whispered.

He quickly scanned the field: one old man that was too withered for his tastes, one middle-aged man that practically oozed of chakra, three others currently out of commission, and a girl lying in her own blood. Kyuubi fought with himself on whether he should pick the chakra buffet or the scent of blood, it was quite hard. On one hand the chakra's strength practically begged him to play, on the other hand the young girl's sweet blood – _type O_, Kyuubi thought with a grin – couldn't go to waste just like that. After a moment of thought, Kyuubi came to his decision.

He raced towards Sakura.

* * *

"Sakura!" Tazuna yelled.

He raced to his bodyguard, knowing that there was no way he would be able to make it in time. God, what had he gotten himself into? More importantly, what kind of monster was he to force these children into an early death by the hands of an old greedy businessman and his lackeys? Sakura was about to die and, though she scared him to no end, Tazuna couldn't help but feel so ashamed. She was a fresh, blooming life, and he had sent her to her grave with this mission. Tears came to his eyes, "Sakura, I'm sorry for back then!"

Said girl only grinned in the face of death. "So you finally admit that my blouse isn't a trashy color?"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" came a loud, demonically dark voice. "_THAT'S _WHY YOU WERE SO BITCHY ON THE WAY HERE?" Sasuke stomped right in front of Kyuubi and blocked his claw with a summoned katana. Tazuna flinched at the malicious and violent voice, then turned to the child who had ran away.

Sasuke couldn't have cared less that there was a chance he had to murder his best friend or die in this battle, he was _pissed_. He spent the whole day dealing with Sakura's constant complains, death threats, and torture-after-death threats and all for what? Because red wasn't in this year?

"Kid…?"

"And you!" Sasuke yelled, pointing at Tazuna while fixing his grip on the katana so Kyuubi wouldn't pass through, "How dare you say that red isn't fashionable? Red is _always _fashionable! Itachi always wears red, so therefore red must be forever great."

Sakura sweat-dropped. "Here we go again with his big brother complex," she sighed, "Geez, if you feel so guilty about killing him, why don't you just give him some flowers or something? You know? Like a normal person? You don't have to force the universe to honor him."

"Shut up! I do have to, though – ah, Kyuubi, move your claw, thank you – or he would've died for nothing!"

"He saved Konohagakure from a civil war with its most powerful clan which would have started a war within the shinobi nations because of our temporary weakness. That isn't nothing, Sasuke," she said a-matter-of-factly. "While you just…ran away to an insane snake-loving pedophile and his little mad scientist minion."

Sasuke pouted even though he was about to be sliced to death. "They weren't that bad."

Sakura sneered. "Need I remind of the fact they _combined_?"

Sasuke silently shivered in disgust. "Okay, so they were a tad insane."

"That brat ran away with a pedophile? It's like Romeo and Juliet…or Beauty and the Beast…or Bastard and the Beast…"

"Not the time, Tazuna!"

* * *

Ahahaha, funny story. You see, I actually wrote this like a month ago, but I thought it sounded incomplete so I didn't show it. Then I checked my computer today and, viola, there it is, abandoned and alone. So after some thought, I just decided to update 'cause I thought I might as well give you something for being such loyal readers and reviewers. Again, sorry.

**_Replies to Reviews:_**

**Yoshi-chan**: Thank you! I'm trying my (not so) best!

**Analelle**: Well, I guess you know who got stabbed and what happened between Sakura and Tazuna now. Thanks for your support, I'm going to keep writing! I recently got an inspiration for writing, and I think it will keep me motivated!

**Ivy of Midnight**: Yeah, I really don't like SasuSaku, either. In my mind, Sakura should ALWAYS be with Lee, I don't know why. Maybe it's just 'cause their so cute together in my mind. Plus, Sasuke's fun when he's like a mini-Kakashi with his Ichi Ichi.

**Pen-Name-Kitsune-chan**: I seriously thank you for being here since the beginning. Anyway, yeah, Sakura's (spoiler!) gonna have a hair-dyeing habit in this story, but most of the dyes will be some shade of green (hm, I wonder why?). And here you have it, the mystery of Sakura's hatred towards Tazuna revealed (much to Sasuke's anger).

**Herminia-Samara Connor**: Oh! Can I call you Hermione? Funny story on why Sasuke and Sakura are so close, but that's another story (I may mention it in later chapters). Yes, unlike what some people think, there is a BIG difference between being able to create weapons and being able to create chakra-enhancing leather gloves. Poor Sasuke, Sakura just doesn't understand XP.

**_OY's Glossary and Encyclopedia: From Yesterday Edition  
_**

**Kage Yari no Tani - Shadow Spear Valley. A genjutsu created by the Tsukuyomi. In this illusion, the targets are encased in utter darkness, then stabbed multiple times through nonlethal places, maybe even breaking bones in the process. Then the target gets a negative vision of its surroundings, before the illusion turns full-out red. ****There can be anything included in this illusion, including other bodies and such. ****It is a genjutsu that controls people through fear of what they see, generally. However, with Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan this illusion becomes very real and the target's soul is actually taken into the genjutsu, where it is killed and its leftovers (usually chakra) is given to Sasukewhen he needs it. It is possible to escape this variation of the jutsu, but it requires a very strong soul.**

Will this battle ever finish in the near future without Sasuke and Sakura getting into another argument? Find out next time!

**-OY  
**


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